Jerome Thomas produced a touch of magic to win the game for Rangers at Swindon. The on-loan Arsenal winger broke the deadlock with 15 minutes remaining - producing an exquisite finish to lift the ball over the advancing keeper from a very tight angle.

At times it wasn't pretty and a strong wind made flowing football near impossible. But the R's dug in, battled hard and eventually found the touch of magic that was needed to win the game. Playing against an extremely strong wind in the first half, Rangers never really linked together and struggled to find their man.

However, they did have chances and the best fell to Dominic Foley. The Irish striker has started the move by spreading the ball wide to Jerome Thomas, the Arsenal man cut inside and cross for Foley and his header was cleared off the line by Matthew Heywood. Swindon were using the wind cleverly and were just dropping long balls over the back of the R's defence, it was holding up allowing Eric Sabin to use his pace and burst forward.

The Frenchman had the R's best chance when he sprung the R's offside trap and burst into the area, but Rhys Evans was quick off his line to deny the striker. The R's were trying to give the ball to Thomas as much as possible and he saw a long-range effort drift wide as did Foley.

It turned out to be a scrappy half with the wind making it very difficult to play any decent football, but the R's were lucky to escape a penalty claim when Sabin went down under the challenge of Dan Shittu and Terrel Forbes. Immediately after the break, Kevin Gallen created a chance by playing Richard Langley through, but the midfielder saw the ball get caught up in the heavily cut up centre circle and the chance was lost.

At the other end, Swindon substitute Paul McAreavey saw a curling cross get caught by the wind and the ball struck the top of the crossbar with Rhys Evans caught out. However, the keeper had to be at his best when Danny Invincible's shot was blocked by Dan Shittu, but the rebound fell to the striker and his effort was parried away by Evans. But the goal eventually came - and what a fine finish it was. Gallen got the ball on the halfway line and flicked it through to Jerome Thomas.

He skipped past the challenge of Andy Gurney and burst into the box, lifting the ball over keeper Bart Griemink from a near impossible angle. Swindon threw everything forward late in the half, but the R's held on.